Low-power-threshold photonic saturable absorber in nonlinear chalcogenide glass

International audienceWe experimentally demonstrate controllable nonlinear modulation of optical guiding in ultrafast laser-written evan-escently coupled waveguide arrays in bulk gallium lanthanum sulfide chalcogenide glass. The intensity-dependentresponse is validated by simulating light propagation in waveguide arrays with instantaneous Kerr nonlinearityusing a discrete continuous spatiotemporal unidirectional Maxwell equation model. The intensity-drivenmodulation of transmission in multicore structures acts as a potential saturable absorber at kilowatt thresholdlevel